Tolkien Biopic

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Warner Bros. is the lucky studio behind three Lord of Rings movies and another three Hobbit films, but Fox Searchlight will be the one who finally brings the genius behind those fantasy epics to the big screen. And no, I don’t mean Peter Jackson.

The studio has just set David Gleeson to script a biopic of author J.R.R. Tolkien, which for now is simply being called Tolkien. Peter Chernin (The Heat) will produce. Hit the jump for more details on the project.

The LA Times reported on the new project. Gleeson is an Irish filmmaker known mainly for indies like Cowboys & Angels and The Front Line, but he seems to know his way around Middle-earth. The publication also describes him as “a Tolkien superfan and scholar of sorts.”

....

Gleeson’s script will focus mainly on Tolkien’s experiences in World War I and Pembroke College, examining the way the author’s real life shaped his fictional works.

While Tolkien isn’t the first attempt to tell the writer’s story, there has been no major biopic of him so far. One recent try was Mirkwood, based on Steve Hillard’s fanciful novel about Tolkien’s codebreaking work during World War II, but not much progress seems to have been made. It is unclear at this time whether the Tolkien estate will work with Gleeson on his movie.

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... Gleeson’s script will focus mainly on Tolkien’s experiences in World War I and Pembroke College, examining the way the author’s real life shaped his fictional works ...

He was in the service from 1915 to I think about 1918 (while in his mid twenties). Then he was at Pembroke College from 1925-1945 (until he's in his fifties) after which he moves to Merton College. If the film is really going to explore "how his real life shaped his fiction works" then the story ought to show his friendship with Lewis (and they met each other in 1926).

Should they try to cast Tom Hiddleston? Michael Fassbender? Benedict Cumberbatch? All three are in pretty heavy demand these days.

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Should they try to cast Tom Hiddleston? Michael Fassbender? Benedict Cumberbatch? All three are in pretty heavy demand these days.

Fassbender, maybe, though I can't quite picture it. Hiddleston and Cumberbatch don't seem right at all. I don't know how to explain why except to say, inadequately, that they seem so modern, and Tolkien was if anything more old-fashioned in his own day than he is now.

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Interests:I have a particular interest in the works of Hitchcock, Kurasawa, Nolan, Lynch, Malick, Wong Kar-wai, Welles, and Scorsese. I am developing an interest in Southeast and East Asian cinema. My research areas include film and literary theory. I am currently working on the topic of film, memory, and dreams - subjectivity in cinema. And I still love Spielberg and Lucas.

Should they try to cast Tom Hiddleston? Michael Fassbender? Benedict Cumberbatch? All three are in pretty heavy demand these days.

Fassbender, maybe, though I can't quite picture it. Hiddleston and Cumberbatch don't seem right at all. I don't know how to explain why except to say, inadequately, that they seem so modern, and Tolkien was if anything more old-fashioned in his own day than he is now.

Hiddleston's played early-twentieth century before. Though his character in DEEP BLUE SEA was very different from Tolkien.

Nicholas Hoult Frontrunner To Play Young JRR TolkienEXCLUSIVE: Nicholas Hoult is in early talks to star in Tolkien. He will play J.R.R. Tolkien, whose Middle-Earth epic novels hatched the Peter Jackson-directed film trilogies The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbit. Dome Karukoski has been set to direct Tolkien, with Chernin Entertainment producing for Fox Searchlight.
The script by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford explores the formative years of the orphaned author as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a fellow group of outcasts at school. This takes him into the outbreak of World War I, which threatens to tear the “fellowship” apart. All of these experiences would inspire Tolkien to write his famous Middle-Earth novels. The filmmakers sparked to Hoult’s performance in the Yorgos Lanthimos-directed The Favorite. . . .
Deadline.com, July 25

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I just noticed that the bulk of this thread was written on the 50th anniversary of C.S. Lewis's death. Which... doesn't really mean anything, but still.